Anthropometric Data

The word “anthropometry’’ was coined by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier (1769–1832). It was first used by physical anthropologists in their studies of human variability among human races and for comparison of humans to other primates. Anthropometry literally means “measurement of man,’’ or “measurement of humans,’’ from the Greek words anthropos, a man, and metron, a measure.

Herron, R.E.   2006.  Anthropometry: Definition, Uses, and Methods of Measurement.  In International Encyclopedia of Ergonomics and Human Factors, Second Edition.  CRC Press.

Today, anthropometry plays an important role in industrial design, clothing design, ergonomics and architecture where statistical data about the distribution of body dimensions in the population are used to optimize products.